Dacha Theatre Lifts Emma to 21st Century Winsome Joy

When one thinks of the Regency era’s gentry, it is often with thoughts of scheming nobles, naive, romantically-inclined women fresh out of girlhood, and rakish men. Etiquette and honor mean everything, and even a minor infraction against either means destitution within high society.

So naturally, when Dacha Theatre, who so often defies the status quo of theatre, took on Kate Hamill’s Emma, they began the show by having audience members pluck up the women’s etiquette guide pages—which had been left on every seat—and shred them, stating they were throwing etiquette out the door.

Audience members held onto these shreds and threw them when cued. The pieces fluttered down as white confetti upon the jubilant opening wedding scene of Mrs. Weston (Kayla Walker), and Mr. Weston (Van Lang Pham).

The performance abandoned the rigid rules of etiquette, but it certainly kept one commonality of the era intact: Schemes and plots abounded, Emma’s the grandest of all.

Bored in a house with only her gruel-obsessed father, Mr. Woodhouse (Van Lang Pham), for company, and motivated by her recent matchmaking success with the Westons, Emma (Rachel Guyer-Mafune) put her cleverness to work. She tore ‘inadequate’ couples apart and shoved ‘suitable’ suitors together in the hopes that proximity would make them fall in love. Emma ignored all caution from the humble and charmingly awkward Mr. Knightly (MJ Jurgensen), who tried to tell her the heart follows its own will, not hers. Never thwarted, she replied each time with, “Isn’t it fun to watch me try?” The words swiftly became a wholesome motif between Emma, Knightly, and the audience, but for the characters in Emma’s path, they brought frequent emotional calamity.

Set on a traverse stage with audiences on opposite sides, the cast and director Sophia Franzella faced the unique challenge of having no true stage front. Blocking had to accommodate all, facing one way for some parts and another way for others, often filling the opposite side with some silent character action to keep the eye occupied and the mind entertained. Other times, the blocking took a neutral approach, actors facing sideways rather than facing out to the audience. It was done seamlessly, never making one side feel shorted.

Mr. Knightly (MJ Jurgensen) giving Emma (Rachel Guyer-Mafune) an invitation to his berry picking party.

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Due to these challenges, scenic design and prop design by Teia O’Malley were kept minimalistic, often wielding a humorous air. Tables on the staging space seated a handful of guests in the immersive spotlight. Cast members talked to them and asked questions or simply bestowed a prop upon them like a box of tissues to hold while a character wept. Most entertaining, perhaps, was the use of both actors and immersively seated patrons to create a gathering of bushes for Mr. Knightly’s wonderfully wholesome berry-picking party, the invitations to which were stick drawn and absurdly massive.

In its scenic design, costuming, and script execution, the show never took itself too seriously. The actors were clad in vibrant formal wear, colorful accessories, and bright sneakers, in assemblages designed by Ro Miller. The script and its action beats landed with impeccable comedic timing and fourth wall breaks, which addressed the audience and the fated destiny of the characters in the novel, bringing an intimate yet omniscient quality to the performance with a uniquely Dacha flair.

The show was not without its serious moments, however. In the ruinous mess she made with her meddling, Emma had to face the reason for all her scheming. Raised under the tutelage of Mrs. Weston, she found herself brimming with intellectual potential, but with nowhere to channel it beyond failed matchmaking maneuvers. Emma dragged the likes of Harriet (Emily Huntingford), her protégé, through heartbreak after heartbreak to merely prove a point. While regrettable for Harriet, it built a compelling theme about the boundless potential of women, addressing and confronting the detrimental effects of the patriarchy on society and the particular plights of an educated woman within the Regency era. It proved a humbling feminist commentary in our own time of ailing political climates. But as Emma said, one must move “forward, onward, upward” and boldly conquer the hardships of the new day.

Mrs. Weston proved the portrait of motherly wisdom and guided the characters through their troubles to self-realization. As was perhaps expected, love found its own way in the end.

Overall, the performance was a testament to the creative strengths of Dacha’s cast and creative team. Actors accompanied the play with live, folksy music, rotating between instruments whenever their characters were offstage. A feat which created a deeper authenticity to the play and highlighted the diverse talents of the entire cast.

On stage, lines were delivered with perfect punch to the great delight of audiences. Some notable mentions: the uproarious Miss Bates (Riley Gene), who stole the show with their energetic and riotous hilarity; Mr. Woodhouse, whose minimal lines brought laughter no matter how often they were said; Jane Fairfax (Pearl Mei Lam), whose stoicism stood as a humorous foil and false antagonist to Emma throughout the show; and the Eltons (James Schilling and Claire Idstrom), whose absurd and vulgar choreography brought brilliantly timed comedic breaks among the more serious moments of the play.

Behind the scenes, elements of design wove together to create a fitting atmosphere which supported the comedy and boosted it to grander heights. Emma proved once more that Dacha Theatre shines in all it does.